The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Google is giving Eric Schmidt an equity award of $100 million before he steps down as chief executive to make way for co-founder Larry Page, according to Bloomberg.

Page will take over as CEO on April 4, Google said Thursday, while also disclosing in a regulatory filing that Schmidt will be selling 534,000 of shares in the company over the next year -- shares currently worth about $335 million.

The $100-million equity award that Bloomberg reported Friday is the first such award to Schmidt since he joined Google as chairman in 2001, the news agency said, citing an unnamed source who it said was "familiar with the matter."

Bloomberg's source was unidentified because the award has yet to be made public by the company. Google officials were not available for comment Friday.

Google said Thursday that Schmidt owned 9.2 million shares in Google as of Dec. 31, an amount worth about $5.8 billion.